by Mike Lanier - April 6, 2005

As you rocket down a track tailing the leader, two ships are closing in on you. A woman�s voice rises out of your cockpit, �Shield Critical.� You look back and see the ships, dark against the view of a bright, futuristic city. Either one of those ships behind you could have a rocket or a homing missile. You have a missile too, but that will only help with the guy in front: the guy you�ve been tailing this whole lap. The race is almost over and you�re in second place. That�s not good enough. The voice gives a new warning: �Missile.� With only a second to decide you hit a button and your ship converts your ammo into shield energy just in time to absorb the hit from behind. With only a couple hundred meters left in the race you go airborne and pull a barrel roll, charging your turbo meter. When you hit the track again your boost propels you into first and the race is over. Welcome to Wipeout Pure.

Keep It Simple

The controls here are only as complicated as they need to be (this purity thing is coming across, right?). You steer the ship with the analog stick or directional buttons (you can also adjust the pitch of your ship when airborne to soften your landings). The face buttons allow you to accelerate, fire a weapon, absorb a weapon, or look behind you. R operates your airbrake and L lets you side-shift. You can even tap left right left or right left right in midair to pull off a barrel roll. If you complete the roll before touching down you are rewarded with a brief turbo boost. All of these controls work well and the button assignments make sense (the one problem you may have is using the L button and analog stick simultaneously; but that�s a system design issue, not a software one). Firing or absorbing weapons becomes very strategic as you progress through the game. You�ll find yourself debating whether using a weapon is worth the risk when you can absorb its energy to increase your shield. The weapons in here are simple, but fun, and (thankfully) aren�t too powerful. You�ll know if you�ve been hit, but you don�t have to worry in being blown apart by a couple well-placed bombs. Everything is balanced and very fun. That said, this game is not easy.

The Wipeout series has always been different from other racing games. Specifically because the vehicles you�re racing don�t have wheels. Your ship might seem like it�s sliding around way to much and you could find yourself bouncing off walls and recalling nightmares you had after playing F-Zero for the SNES. Mastering how the ships glide might not seem natural at first, but the learning curve for Wipeout Pure, while steep, is not insurmountable. The Alpha difficulty/speed mode and Free Play allow you to get used to the game�s physics and, if you�re up to the challenge, this game is extremely rewarding.

Within the single player game your options are Single Race, Tournament, Time Trial, Zone, and Free Play. Single Race is what it sounds like. Pick one of the tracks you have unlocked and see if you can come in first. The Tournament gets a little more complicated. You�re offered two difficulties/speeds to start with and within each of those is an identical 4-track set of races. Get 3rd place or better in one of these tournaments and you unlock a new 4-track tournament. Beat that and you get to try all eight tracks combined. The different difficulties and race options make it easy to find a mode that suits your skill level and the separate modes (with the exception of Free Play) all allow you to earn medals and unlock new tracks. Time Trial is as self-explanatory as Single Race and Free Play, but Zone is something different.

In Zone you are given a track devoid of competitors. It�s you versus you. Once you start going it�s up to you keep going until your ship explodes. As you complete more laps your ships speed increases until your going faster than your reflexes can manage. There are no items to help you here, just stay away from the edges. This mode might seem pointless at first due to its lack of other racers, but it�s addictive as hell. Once you get through 20 zones on a track and blow up, you�ll swear you can do better next time. This mode will keep you playing for a while.

The gameplay here is tough but fair. Gamers who want a game they can keep playing and always have room to improve at will delight in Wipeout Pure�s speed-driven mechanics and streamlined nature.

Particle Effects Rock!

When a new system is released it can take developers months or even years to figure out how to get the most out of the system. Wipeout Pure�s programmers at Studio Liverpool have worked magic here, and with a launch title no less.

Everything in Wipeout Pure sparkles. The menus are simple, but have a clean, futuristic style. The ships are modeled and textured well and everything clips along at a pretty steady 60 frames per second. You really have to see this in motion to understand how great that is. The graphics are more than just pretty, they add to the feeling of speed this game is built on and help draw you in.

The explosions and particle effects look unbelievable even after hours of gameplay. This game really looks ludicrously good in motion. While this game shows off how powerful the PSP is and just what new handheld games can look like, its graphical strength is more than just high-end processing. The art direction is clean and futuristic, but never repetitive. That�s quite an accomplishment. Studio Liverpool has helped maintain the universe of Wipeout while adding some graphical flair. In one track you are weaving between buildings while on another the course cuts through volumetric clouds that obscure your opponents. Power pushes the art here, but there is a lot of art to push.

There are some slightly blurry textures here and there, but you don�t notice unless you stop moving. Also, there are some hitches in the frame rate when several ships are onscreen at once or when a lot of effects go off, but they don�t diminish the playability at all. Graphically there isn�t much to complain about.

Exploding Dance Party

The first Wipeout was one of the first games to feature recognizable, licensed electronic music and Wipeout Pure continues that tradition and mixes it with crisp and functional sound effects that truly pull you into the universe.

First off, you should play this game with headphones. The speakers on your PSP do make noise, but the music and sound effects here need to be experienced through headphones to be truly appreciated. Everything is crisp and processed to sound great. While flying through a course you�ll be able to hear your bombs explode behind you as opponents hit them, you�ll hear missiles approaching and you�ll even get vocal warnings when your shield is low or someone is gunning for you. Behind all of this is a pumping sound track featuring artists like Aphex Twin and Tiesto. Everything blends together perfectly, leaving you feeling like you really are in a futuristic electronic world where even the music is fast and gets your pulse pounding.

Pure = Fun

I�ve already said this game is not easy and that�s true. But this game is never unfair. Even if you�re doing poorly in a race, rubber band A.I. keeps you in it, you just have to work for it. Wipeout Pure strikes the balance between being accessible and challenging that many modern games are lacking. It reminded me of viciously difficult arcade games that used to eat my milk money but in a way that evoked nostalgia for the challenge rather than disdain. If you like racing games at all and don�t like games you can beat in a few hours, then this game is for you. It�s fun, its difficulty amps up reasonably, and there�s a lot to do.

Ships Dripping With Plasma

Wipeout Pure deserves extra props for taking a chance. It was a launch title that gave the developers a stricter timetable within which to develop it. It was a racing game coming out at the same time as Ridge Racer for PSP. Studio Liverpool simplified the racing formula of the last Wipeout game by weakening the weapons, doing away with pits, and generally streamlining the game. This is a beautiful, ambitious, and engaging launch title and it�s a must-have if you�ve got a PSP and you like racing at all. This one comes highly recommended.

Just Buy It

Racing games have given us pretty much every scenario by now. We�ve flown in biplanes with Diddy Kong, pulled tricks on ATVs and meticulously practiced turning in Gran Turismo. There are kart-racing games, NASCAR games, and games packed with more Hollywood crashes than actual racing. So how can Wipeout Pure for PSP hope to pull ahead? The answer is in the title. Wipeout Pure is about pure speed and little else. You�ll enjoy flashy weapons and beautiful tracks, but it�s the wicked fast gameplay that will keep Wipeout Pure in your PSP for a while.